Samuel Normington

Sam is passionate about working with children, sailing and music. He loves adventure, exploring new places and taking photographs. As a Brit living in the San Francisco Bay Area he has enjoyed growing up in such a diverse area and he is looking forward to meeting more people from a different culture. He has tutored elementary-age students as well as helped older students graduate from high school. During his time in Senegal, Sam hopes to make life long friends, experience the world and learn more about himself in the process.

Beginnings Must End

Samuel Normington

2014-04-07

I have at times strove for perfection in the context of writing blog posts. Today, I am replacing perfection with importance. I have wanted to give you the perfect description of everything in my life but I can’t quite put it into words, and besides that, the feelings I wish to convey are so simple...

Reference to Home

Samuel Normington

2014-01-24

Home sickness is like a hurricane. You are only vaguely aware of it brooding in the distance but it is determined to not just be a bad day or a little storm, it’s determined to knock you off your feet, and leave you stunned and stinging, questioning everything in existence, physical or not. What is...

Expectations to Revelations

Samuel Normington

2013-11-12

Ignorance has a funny way of working itself into our lives until it is so tightly knit that the unraveling of it seems wrong and impossible. As do expectations, and the saying “expect the unexpected” doesn’t quite cover it all. The hardest thing is to prepare for the obvious, to be ready for something so...

Only Time Will Tell

Samuel Normington

2013-10-29

Fair warning: This is a tad graphic, sorry. Life is a very powerful force. I have never seen anything more than an insect have to combat death as the life escapes from its grasp. And although sometimes even seeing a spider die slowly can be sad to watch, it still doesn’t seem to hold much...

Namenala te ya ngi dogue ñew

Samuel Normington

2013-10-10

I have no idea how long I’ve been here but it isn’t particularly important. It’s been anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours and yet it really doesn’t matter. Within minutes of my arrival in Gueoul, I had fallen in love. My father, Baay Cherno, greeted me with a warm smile and a firm handshake...

My Road to Senegal

Samuel Normington

2013-07-10

Every life begins with a birth, and ends with a death. Everyone will get to the end eventually, but the exciting part happens along the way. There are an unbelievable number of roads to take, and yet everyone forges a new path; they define their life and they decide how to get to the end....